Multicopy attachment for typewriters



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ga /MA Patented Jan. 30, 1923.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

LEONARD I. ROSE,. OF SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA, A SBIGNOB, BY DIRECT AND MESH ASSIGNMENTS, roam T0 NIBTOGBAPH COMPANY, INC., A CORPORATION OF CALI- MULTICOPY ATTACHMENT FOR I'YPEWRITEBS.

a lication filed Inn: 20, 1921. Serial No. 478,987.

To all u'luunit may concern lie it known that I. Lnoxann 1'. Ross. a eitizeu of the l'nited States. residing in the city and county of San Francisco and h'tate of ('aliforuia, have invented a new and useful Improvement in a Multiropy Littaelnnent for 'lypewriters. of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to improvements in multi-copy attachments for typewriters wherein a plurality of slotted llltllll t'l's or bars having typewriter ribbons mounted in said slots operate in conjunction with means for maintaining said members between sheets of paper upon a platen of a typewriter and opposite the point of contact of the type-bars with said platen toprmluce a plurality of copies all of which have the appearance of being originals.

The primary object of the present invention is to provide a new and lljlPI'tHttl multi-copy attachment for typewriters.

Another object of the invention is to )Itlvide a new and im n-oved dericeot' the c laratter dest'ribed w iieh is arranged to produce a plurality of ribbon instead of carbon 1 copies.

A further object is to provide nnproved means for producing copies of trywwrntten matter which shall be simple. cheap and effective in operation and construction and ha ring a maxinnnn etiieiency.

still further object of the invention is to )rovide improved means for eliminating he use of carbon sheets in producing copies of typewritten matter. thereby of feeting a savlng of time. labor and expense and simultaneimsly n'm'iding a plurality of copies of neater and sharper aplwaritnce.

I accomplish these and other ob ects by means of the device disclosed in the drawings forming a part of the present spec|l|- cation wherein like characters of reference are used to designate similar parts throughout the said specification and drawings. and in which:

Fig. 1 is a transverse sectional v ew of a portion of the carriage of a typewriter disrinsing, my improved attachment applied thereto;

Fig. 2 is a broken front elevation. partly in section, of Fig. 1;

Fig. 3 is an enlarged broken elevation of a portion of one of the slotted members disclosing the ribbon mounted in said slot:

Fig. 4 is a still further enlarged broken transvelse seetional view of the front portion of the platen and portions of a plurality of sheets of )aper thereon disclosing the arrangement 0 my multi-eom'ing device; and

Fig. 5 is a broken'seetional view disclosing the nmnner in which all of the members may be removed from between the sheets simultaneously.

Referring to the drawings the numeral 1 is used to designate in general the carriage of a typewriter having the usual platen 2 mounted thereupon. and 3 a number of sheets of paper wound upon said platen :2.

Plates 4 are secured to the side members of the carriage l and are provided with lugs (3 within which is mounted a suitable rod 7. l'pon-the rod 7 a plurality of arms 8 are arranged in pairs each pair being rigidly connected by means of nested sleeves I so lhat when either arm of a pair is raised or lowered, the op )osite arm of the same pair will be raised and lowered simultaneously. l)etachabl r connected. in anv suitable manner. between the free ends of each pair of arms is a slotted member ll wit-bin the slot of which is mounted, under a sli ht tension. a typewriter ribbon l2. said rib ion being slightly thinner than said bar and having the hack thereof arranged flush with the bark of said bar so as to normally prevent routaet of said ribbon 12 with the front or writing surfuee of the adjacent sheet of paper 3.

in order to-prevent contact of the back surface of the ribbon 12 in one slotted bar it with the back of the sheet 3 in front of saidbar ll. T have covered the said back of said bar 11 with a resilient or fibrous shield H whirh may be of any light texlure. such as a sheet or strip of stencil paper which is designed and adapted to withstand blows from a type bar and therefore is admirably suited for this mrpose. The shield H covers the slot and t 1e. ribbon 12 therein so that the rear surface of the sheet 3 immediately in front of the bar 11 will be prellltl rented. from contacting with said ribbon when the platen 2 is rotated to turn the sheets upwardly a space of one or twolines during the process of typewriting.

in order to facilitate the. placing and removal of the slotted members II-between their respective sheets, 3 I have provided outwardly extending tabs formed integrally with the arms 8. the tab 16 of the inner pair of arms 8 extending under and beyond the other arms 8 beyond it so that when it is desiredto remove all of the members 11 the same inay be. easily and readil accomplished by raising the said tab In which case said tab will engage the under sides or edges of the'remaining arms 8 and raise all of the said arms and their res )ectivc ribbons 12 away from the platen ant to an inoperative position asp-disclosed in dotted lines in Fig. l of the drawings.

To normally retain the arms 8 in an operative or inoperative iosltaon I inn-e provided the resllient sp g member 1t which is arranged to engage ne flat'edge of the squared ends of the arms 8 and by exertin a pressure thereunto normally retain said arms in either an operative or inoperative position.

In 0 )eration the members 11 with their res )ective ribbons 12 areplaced one between each sheet of paper 3 rolled upon the platen 2, as disclosed in Fig. 4 of the drawm s.

This will bring the slot of the mem er 11 and the ribbon 12 therein directly opposite the int of contact of the type bar 18 with the platen 2 so that when said type bar 18 is operated said bar-'18 will contact with the regular ribbon 19 which is carried by the typewriter and make an impression on the front of the first or top sheet of paper 3 on the platen 2. The force of the impact of said type bar 18 willcause the intervening ribbons 12 to be carried onto the front surfaces of their respective sheets 3 and nopress an impression of the type bar 11f there on thereby producing multi-coples wit-h ribbon impressions instead of carbon impressions.

In this manner every copy will be a ribbon copy or what is known as an original for the reason that said copies will bear ribbon mstead of carbon paper impressions.

The saving of time. labor and expensive carbon paper is very obvious. Not only will the cost of the carbon paper he eliminoted but also the time and labor of insertin g a sheet of carbon aper between every two sheets of paper will )6 saved.

The use of this invention will also facilitate erasing or correction of copies and effect a saving of time in such erasures or corn-ct'ions. Vlr'here carbon sheets are used it is necessary to first move the paper up one or two lines to render the error accessible for erasure.

The sheets of paper and carbon must-next be separated separately and a rigid shield must be placed in back of the sheet to be erased to prevent the presume. created by erasing. from causing an impression to be made from the next carbon uiulerncath. This operation must be repeated for every sheet of paper on the platen 2. I

Where the present invention is used it is only necessity to rotate the platen 2 in the usual manner to render the error accessible for erasure after which each sheet may be easily corrected without inserting a protectiveshield behind the sheet being erased.

With this invention it should also be noted that it is not necemry to insert and align sheets of carbon paper with thesbcets to be written before inserting: into the machine. It is only necessar to feed the required number of sheets onto the platen and then move the first or innermost slotted bar 11 in front of the last sheet of paper or that sheet next to the platen. Then place the next sheet of paper 3 over this strip or bar 11 and place the next or successive bar 11 in front of the second sheet of paper 3. and repeat this operation until the required number of sheets have becn placed. The usual ribbon operated by the typewriter willmake the first sheet or impression and the slotted bars 11 with their respective ribbons 12 will produce the copies.

While I have illustrated only three slot- -ted members 11 with their respective ribbons 12 it is obvious that a larger number of bars may be used. The thickness ofthe bars 11 is only slightly greater than the thickness of the ribbon 12 mounted within the slot so that the entire ribbon and member 11 form a very thin sheet and therefore a great number of copies may be produced as the total thickness of all of the bars 11 plus the thickness of the total number of sheet-S of paper is very small.

Having thus described my invention what I claim as new and desire to securecy Lettel-s Patent is:

1. An attachment forty )eivriters comprising a plurality of slotted members; t 'pewriter ribbons suspended in said 'ots: means for normally retniniiui said slotted members and ribbons between sheets of paper on the platen of said typewriter and at a point opposite the point of contact of the type. bars of said typewriter with Sllltl platen.

2. An attachment for typewriters comprising a plurality of slotted members: tvpewriter ri lbons suspended in said slots: means for normally retaining said slotted members and ribbon between sheets of paper on the platen of said typewriter and at a point opposite the point of contact of the type bars of said ty n-wrlter with said platen: and means for preventing culltut't of the backs of said ribbons with the back surfaces of adjacent sheets.

3. An attachment, for typewriters comprising a plurality of slotted members: typewriter ribbons suspended in said slots: means for normally retaining said slotted members and ribbons between sheets of paper on the platen of said typewriter and at a point opposite the point of contact of the type bars of said typewriter with said platen: means for preventing contact of the backs of said ribbons with the back surfaces of adjacent sheets: and means for removing all of said members and ribbons simultaneously.

4. An attachment for typewriters comprising a plurality of slotted bars arranged to be inserted between sheets of paper upon The platen of a typewriter and opposite the point of contact of the type bars of said typewriter with said platen: typewriter ribbons mounted in said slots and arranged flush with the back surface of said bars: and a shield mounted upon the bar]; of each bar ind covering the slot and ribbon therein to prevent contact of the back of said ribbon with the back surface of the adjacent sheet of paper.

5. An attachment for typewriters comprisin a plurality of slotted bars arranged to be inserted between sheets of paper upon the platen of a typewriter and opposite the point of contact of the type bars of said type' writer with said platen: typewriter ribbons mounted in said slots and arranged flush with the back surface of said bars: and a shield mounted upon the back of each bar and covering the slot and ribbon therein to prevent contact of the back of said ribbon with the back surface of the adjacent sheet of paper: and means for removing all of said bars from between the sheets of paper simultaneously.

(3. An attachment for typewriters con1prising a. plurality of slotted bars pivotally mounted upon a typewriter carriage and arranged to be moved between sheets of paper upon the platen of said typewriter and opposite the point of contact of the type bars of said typewriter with said platen; typewriter ribbons mounted within each slot and flllsh with the back surface of the member to normally prevent contact of said ribbon with the front surface of an adjacent sheet; and a flexible shield mounted upon the back surface of each bar and covering the slot and ribbon therein to prevent contact of said ribhon with the back of an adjacent sheet of paper.

T. .\n attachment for typmvriters comprising a rod mounted upon the carriage of a typewriter: a plurality of arms pivotally mounted in pairs upon said rod: means rigidly connecting each pair of arms: a slotted ar detachably connected between the free ends of each pair of arms. each bar arranged to be held by its respective pair of arms between sheets of paper upon the platen of said typewriter and opposite the point of contact of the type bars of said typewriter with said platen: a ribbon mounted within each slot and arranged flush with the back surface of the member to normally prevent contact of said ribbon with the front surface of an ad jacent sheet of paper; and a shield mounted upon the back of each slotted bar and covering the slot and the ribbon therein to prevent contact of said ribbon with the back surface of an adjacent sheet on that side of said bar.

8. An attachment for typewriters comprising a rod mounted upon the carriage of a typewriter: a plurality of arms pivotally mounted in' pairs upon said rod: means rigidly connecting each pair of arms: a slotted bar detachably connected between the free ends of each pair of arms. each bar arranged to be held by its respective pair of a rms between sheets of paper upon the platen of said typewriter and opposite the point of contact of the type bars of said typewriter with said platen: a ribbon mounted within each slot and arranged flush with the back surface of the member to normally prevent contact of said ribbon with the front surface of an adjacent sheet of paper: a shield mounted upon the back of each slotted bar and covering the slot and the ribbon therein to prevent contact of said ribbon with the back surface of an adjacent sheet on that side of said bar: and means for raising all of said arms and bars simultaneously to remove said slotted bars and ribbons from between said sheets of paper.

9. An attachment for typewriters comprising a rod mounted upon the carriage of a typewriter: a plurality of arms plvotally mounted in pairs upon said rod; means rigidly connecting each pair of arms: a slotted bar detachably connected between the free ends of each pair of arms. each bar arranged to be held by its respective pair of arms between sheets of paper upon the platen of said typewriter and opposite the point of contact of the type bars of said typewriter with said platen; a ribbon mounted within each slot and arranged flush with the back surface of the member to normally prevent contact of said ribbon with the front surface of an adjacent sheet of paper: a shield mounted upon the back of each slotted bar and covering the slot and the ribbons therein to prevent contact of said ribbon with the back surface of an adjacent sheet on that side of said bar: and means for normally retaining said slotted bars either opposite or away from said point of contact.

In witness whereof I hereunto set my sigture.

LEONARD F. ROSE. 

